THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

BEQUEST 

OF 

ANITA  D.  S.  BLAKE 


til     .         L         \*W      ■    ,. 


L  J?R 


(gfttcral  $nrirtg  of  fBayfloum-  Sftsmthanta 


ORDER  OF  EXERCISES 


Dedication 


OF  THE 


Cole's  Hill  Memorial 


Thursday,  September  8,  1921 


AT  THE 


FIRST  CHURCH 

PLYMOUTH,    MASS. 


Report  of  tke 

Committee  on  tke  Tercentenary  Celebration 

and  Permanent  Memorial 


1620—1920 


ORDER  OF  EXERCISES 


DEDICATION 


OF  THE 


Cole's  Hill  Memorial 

THURSDAY,  SEPTEMBER  8,  1921 

AT  THE 

FIRST  CHURCH 

PLYMOUTH,   MASS. 


PRESIDING : 

Former  Governor  General    HOWLAND   DAVIS,  CWrrnan  of  tke 
Committee  on  tne  Tercentenary   Celebration 
and  Permanent  Memorial 


LOAN  SI 
GIFT 


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"INSCRIPTIONS  ON  MONUMENT 


THIS  MONUMENT  MARKS  THE  FIRST  BURYING  GROUND 
IN  PLYMOUTH  OF  THE  PASSENGERS  OF  THE  MAYFLOWER 

HERE,  UNDER  COVER  OF  DARKNESS,  THE  FAST  DWINDLING  COMPANY 
LAID  THEIR  DEAD,  LEVELING  THE  EARTH  ABOVE  THEM  LEST  THE 
INDIANS  SHOULD  LEARN  HOW  MANY  WERE  THE  GRAVES. 
READER!  HISTORY  RECORDS  NO  NOBLER  VENTURE  FOR  FAITH 
AND  FREEDOM  THAN  THAT  OF  THIS  PILGRIM  BAND.  IN  WEARINESS 
AND  PAINFULNESS,  IN  WATCHINGS  OFTEN,  IN  HUNGER  AND  COLD 
THEY  LAID  THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  A  STATE  WHEREIN  EVERY  MAN, 
THROUGH  COUNTLESS  AGES,  SHOULD  HAVE  LIBERTY  TO  WORSHIP 
GOD  IN  HIS  OWN  WAY.  MAY  THEIR  EXAMPLE  INSPIRE  THEE  TO  DO 
THY  PART  IN  PERPETUATING  AND  SPREADING  THE  LOFTY  IDEALS 
OF  OUR  REPUBLIC  THROUGHOUT  THE   WORLD! 


OF  THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FOUR  PASSENGERS 

THESE  DIED  IN  PLYMOUTH  DURING  THE  FIRST  YEAR 

John  Allerton 

Thomas  English       Ellen  More  and 

Edward  Tilley  and 

Mary,  First  Wife  of 

Moses  Fletcher         a  Brother  (children)  Ann  His  Wife 

Isaac  Allerton 

Edward  Fuller  and  William  Mullins 

John  Tilley  and 

Richard  Britteridge 

His  Wife                   Alice  His  Wife  and 

His  Wife 

Robert  Carter 

John  Goodman         Joseph  Their  Son 

Thomas  Tinker 

John  Carver  and 

William  Holbeck      Solomon  Prower 

His  Wife  and  Son 

Katharine  His  Wife 

John  Hooke              John  Rigdale  and 

John  Turner 

James  Chilton's  Wife  John  Langmore        Alice  His  Wife 

and  Two  Sons 

Richard  Clarke 

Edmund  Margeson  Thomas  Rogers 

William  White 

John  Crakston  Sr. 

Christopher  Martin  Rose,  First  Wife  of 

Roger  Wilder 

Sarah,  First  Wife  of 

and  His  Wife                Myles  Standish 

Elizabeth,  First  Wife  of 

Francis  Eaton 

Degory  Priest           Elias  Story 
Thomas  Williams 

Edward  Winslow 

By  Professor  Wilfred  H.  Munro,  of  the  Rhode  Island  Society 


233 


INSCRIPTIONS  ON  MONUMENT 


THE  BONES  OF  THE  PILGRIMS 
FOUND  AT  VARIOUS  TIMES  IN 
AND  NEAR  THIS  INCLOSURE 
AND  PRESERVED  FOR  MANY 
YEARS  IN  THE  CANOPY  OVER 
THE  ROCK  WERE  RETURNED  AT 
THE  TIME  OF  THE  TERCENTENARY 
CELEBRATION  AND  ARE  DEPOSITED 
WITHIN   THIS  MONUMENT. 

ERECTED  BY  THE  GENERAL  SOCIETY 

OF    MAYFLOWER    DESCENDANTS 

A.  D.  1920 


"ABOUTE  A  HUNDRED  SOWLS 
CAME  OVER  IN  THIS  FIRST 
SHIP  AND  BEGAN  THIS  WORK 
WHICH  GOD  OF  HIS  GOODNESS 
HATH  HITHERTOO  BLESED:  LET 
HIS  HOLY  NAME  HAVE  YE  PRAISE" 

BRADFORD    1650 


*By  Professor  Wilfred  H.  Munro,  of  the  Rhode  Island  Society 


ORDER  OF  EXERCISES 


Organ  Selection — Fantasy  in  G  minor   .        .        .  Bach 
Mr.    Albert   W.    Snow 

Prayer  by  Elder  General 

Rev.  John  Coleman  Adams,  D.  D. 

God  of  our  fathers,  whose  arm  failed  them  not, 
neither  has  failed  their  children,  we  gather  here  with 
grateful  hearts  that  Thou  hast  been  a  sun  and  a  shield 
to  them  and  to  us,  through  all  the  years  that  are  past. 
We  come  in  reverence  and  loyalty  to  this  shrine  of  the 
spirit  to  reconsecrate  ourselves  to  the  things  here  begun 
and  the  ideals  here  set  up.  We  thank  Thee  for  our 
lineage  and  for  our  inheritance.  We  thank  Thee  for 
the  names  we  bear,  which  our  fathers  established  in 
honor  for  all  time;  for  the  laws  and  covenants  and 
constitutions  which  they  handed  down  to  us;  for  as 
much  of  their  spirit  as  still  survives  in  us  and  in  the 
land  they  helped  to  found;  for  their  imperishable  vir- 
tues, their  indomitable  faith,  their  unfailing  courage, 
their  patience,  fortitude,  and  loyalty  to  conscience.  We 
thank  Thee  for  the  witness  they  bore  to  the  truth  of 
God  and  to  the  duty  of  man.  We  thank  Thee  for  their 
brave  persistence,  through  frost  and  famine,  through 
peril  and  pestilence,  through  loneliness  and  bereave- 
ment, in  treading  the  way  of  the  Fore-runner  and 
making  straight  a  highway  for  Thee  in  the  wilderness 
of  a  new  land.  Help  us,  0  God,  renew  their  work  in 
a  day  of  trial  and  distress. 

Help  us  to  trust  in  Thy  guidance  and  care;  to  give 
ourselves  to  Thy  service,  to  the  upbuilding  of  Thy 
Kingdom,  to  obedience  to  Thy  law,  to  prayerful  lives, 
to  unselfish  sacrifice,  to  fervent  and  sincere  worship. 


8  ORDER    OF    EXERCISES 

Save  our  land  and  all  lands  from  the  horror  and  the 
sacrilege  of  war.  Promote  the  fellowship  of  the  nations 
and  the  maintenance  of  universal  peace.  Make  our 
land  a  leader  in  brotherhood  and  goodwill.  And  help 
us,  who  come  here  to  consecrate  a  memorial  to  our 
fathers,  to  fashion  one  more  enduring  and  worthy  than 
this  emblem  of  our  reverence  out  of  loyal,  devout,  self- 
sacrificing  lives,  entering  into  their  rewards  by  sharing 
in  their  work. 

So  make  us  to  be  fellow-citizens  with  the  saints 
and  fellow  workmen  with  Thee,  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Master  Soul,  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord.    Amen. 

Former  Governor  General  Davis. 

Three  years  ago  in  this  church  the  Eighth  General 
Congress  of  the  Society  took  the  first  step  to  formulate 
a  plan  for  the  preservation  and  marking  of  the  Pilgrim 
Burying  Ground  on  Cole's  Hill.  This  work  was  even- 
tually undertaken  as  the  most  appropriate  permanent 
contribution  by  it  to  the  Tercentenary  Celebration  of 
the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims.  It  was  unquestionably 
the  one  which  would  appeal  most  keenly  to  the  senti- 
ment and  to  the  interest  of  all  the  descendants  of  the 
Pilgrims,  one  that  is  clear  and  definite  in  its  purpose, 
and  would  stand  apart  by  itself  as  a  memorial  by  the 
Society  of  Mayflower  Descendants. 

The  meeting  here  to-day  is  held  to  mark  the  suc- 
cessful completion  of  this  work  so  undertaken,  and  in 
reverent  memory  of  those  of  the  passengers  of  the 
Mayflower  who  died  during  the  fatal  first  winter,  and 
whose  names  are  now  inscribed  on  the  monument  which 
stands  on  the  spot  where  they  were  buried. 

The  exercises  will  now  continue,  and  I  shall  call 
upon  Deputy  Governor  General  Asa  P.  French  to  make 
the  first  address.  He  needs  no  introduction  to  this 
audience  I  am  very  sure. 


TERCENTENARY    CELEBRATION  V 

Address  by  Deputy  Governor  General 

Hon.  Asa  P.  French. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Descendants  of  the  Pilgrims,  Ladies 
and  Gentlemen:  It  is  uppermost  in  my  thoughts  that 
I  must  not  encroach  upon  the  time,  nor  invade  the 
province,  of  the  principal  speaker  of  the  day,  my  very 
dear  friend  and  classmate,  the  Bishop  of  Maine. 

The  task  which  I  have  undertaken  is  merely  to  say 
a  few  words  in  behalf  of  the  General  Society  of  May- 
flower Descendants  which,  owing  to  the  regrettable  and 
unavoidable  absence  of  General  Wood  whose  term  of 
office  as  its  Governor-General  ended  yesterday,  I  have 
the  honor  to  represent. 

These  exercises,  as  you  have  been  told,  are  held 
under  the  auspices  of  that  Society  for  the  purpose  of 
dedicating  the  monument  erected  by  its  members  on 
Cole's  Hill  as  their  contribution  to  the  permanent 
memorials  which  have  marked  the  advent  of  the  three 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  landing  of  their  first 
ancestors  in  America. 

Plymouth  soil  is  dear,  and  will  ever  remain  dear, 
to  all  true  Americans;  but  to  us,  through  the  accident 
of  birth,  it  is  fertile  with  peculiarly  tender  associa- 
tions. Here,  men  and  women  from  whom  we  are  sprung 
have  lived,  toiled,  suffered  and  died,  and  many  have 
been  laid  to  rest  within  its  borders  or  in  its  neighbor- 
ing towns.  To  repeat  what  I  said,  a  day  or  two 
ago,  upon  another  occasion,  we  are  attached  to  it  by 
all  that  has  gone  before  us  and  by  all  that  shall  come 
after  us;  by  those  who  gave  us  life  and  those  to  whom 
we  have  transmitted  it;  by  the  past  and  by  the  future; 
by  the  immovability  of  graves  and  by  the  rocking  of 
cradles. 

And  so,  upon  the  approach  of  this  anniversary, 
when  the  State  and  the  Nation  have  vied  with  one 
another  in  honoring  the  Pilgrims;  when  countless  multi- 
tudes have  paid  pious  visit  to  the  spots  rendered  sa- 


10  ORDER    OF    EXERCISES 

cred  by  their  lives  and  deeds,  eager  to  testify  their 
respect  and  gratitude,  our  anxious  thought  and  desire 
has  been  to  commemorate  the  event  in  a  manner 
which,  though  in  slight  and  inadequate  measure,  would 
serve  as  a  token  of  our  filial  reverence  and  love. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  of  the  one  hundred  and 
three  passengers  of  the  Mayflower  who  saw  Cape  Cod, 
two,  Oceanus  Hopkins  and  Peregrine  White  were  in- 
fants in  arms.  Four,  including  James  Chilton,  one  of 
the  signers  of  the  Compact,  and  Dorothy,  wife  of 
Governor  Bradford,  died  before  the  arrival  at  Plymouth. 
An  inscrutable  Providence  ordained  that  this  little 
band  should  be  divided  into  two  groups  equal  in  num- 
ber but  unequal  in  fate;  one  destined  to  survive  and 
prosper,  and  to  see,  in  the  alliance  with  the  Massachu- 
setts Colony,  the  dawn  of  a  great  Commonwealth 
founded  by  them, — how  great,  their  wildest  prophecies 
could  have  but  feebly  portrayed;  the  other,  over- 
whelmed and  debilitated  by  the  privations  and  hard- 
ships of  a  two  months'  voyage  in  a  crowded  ship  upon 
a  tempestuous  sea  and  beneath  inclement  skies,  doomed 
barely  to  prolong  their  existence  until  they  reached 
their  journey's  end,  and  to  give  up  their  lives  upon 
the  threshold  of  their  supreme  undertaking.  Insuf- 
ficiently supplied  with  remedies,  and  without  effective 
medical  care,  there  was  little  to  combat  the  dread 
disease  contracted  on  shipboard  and  aggravated  by 
exposure  to  the  rigors  of  an  unaccustomed  winter. 

What  must  have  been  their  doubts  and  fears,  as 
they  felt  the  shadows  of  death  closing  about  them, 
for  the  fate  of  their  surviving  companions  and  the 
success  of  the  enterprise  for  which  they  had  sacrificed 
their  lives! 

How  they  were  buried  on  Cole's  Hill  yonder  in 
leveled  and  unmarked  graves  the  location  of  which 
was  revealed  to  posterity,  more  than  a  century  later, 
only  by  the  accident  of  a  freshet  which  displaced 
parts  of  the  hill  and  brought  some  of  the  bones  to  the 


TERCENTENARY   CELEBRATION  11 

surface;  how  a  highway  was  constructed  through  and 
over  the  hallowed  spot,  subsequently  marked  by  a 
simple  and  inconspicuous  tablet  at  the  roadside, — are 
all  matters  within  the  knowledge  of  every  student  of 
Pilgrim  history  and  need  not  be  recited  here  in  detail. 

At  one  of  the  recent  Congresses  of  this  Society, 
the  attention  of  the  delegates  having  been  called  to 
this  deplorable  situation,  unanimous  action  and  prompt 
measures  were  taken  to  remedy  it.  A  committee  was 
appointed  and  a  plan  was  outlined  and  ultimately 
carried  into  effect,  to  reclaim  the  spot  from  the  high- 
way and  to  place  there  a  monument  which  should  be 
in  some  degree  appropiate  to  commemorate  the  ap- 
palling tragedy  of  that  first  winter  and  spring,  and  to 
record  for  posterity  the  names,  so  far  as  known,  of 
these  martyrs  in  the  cause  of  liberty  and  humanity. 
Truly,  the  ashes  of  those  who  have  died  for  the  world's 
advancement  are  precious  seeds! 

It  is  that  monument  which,  reared  in  loving  grati- 
tude, we  dedicate  today. 

History  records  that  no  one  was  more  active  in 
ministering  to  the  sick  than  Brewster,  their  ruling 
elder,  and  that  it  was  he  who  conducted  the  simple 
and  frequent  services  for  the  dead. 

Mr.  Choate  in  an  oration  delivered  before  the  New 
England  Society  of  New  York  in  1843,  with  that 
wealth  of  imagery  and  beauty  of  diction  of  which  he 
was  a  consummate  master,  has  drawn  a  picture  of  the 
melancholy  scene  and  of  Brewster's  part  in  it  which 
is  so  vivid  and  so  beautiful  that  it  cannot  be  surpassed, 
and  should  not  be  forgotten  on  this  day  of  dedication, 
for  which  it  seems  almost  to  have  been  expressly 
written: 

"In  a  late  undesigned  visit  to  Plymouth,"  he  said,  "I  sought 
the  spot  where  their  earliest  dead  were  buried.  It  was  a  bank,  you 
remember,  somewhat  elevated,  below  the  town  and  between  it 
and  the  water,  near  and  looking  forth  upon  the  waves,  symbol  of 
what  life  had  been  to  them;  ...  On  that  spot  have  laid  to  rest 
together,  the  earth  carefully  smoothed  down,  that  the  Indian  might 
not  count  the  number,  the  true,  the  pious,  the  beautiful,  and  the 


12  ORDER    OF    EXERCISES 

brave,  till  the  heavens  be  no  more.  There,  certainly,  was  buried 
the  first  governor,  'with  three  volleys  of  shot  fired  over  him;'  and 
there  was  buried  Rose,  the  wife  of  Miles  Standish.  .  .  . 

I  can  seem  to  see,  on  a  day  quite  towards  the  close  of  their 
first  month  of  March,  a  diminished  procession  of  the  Pilgrims, 
following  another  dearly  beloved  and  newly  dead  to  that  brink 
of  graves;  and  pausing  sadly  there  before  they  shall  turn  away  to 
see  that  face  no  more.  In  full  view  from  that  spot  is  the  Mayflower, 
still  riding  at  her  anchor,  but  to  sail  in  a  few  days  more  for  England, 
leaving  them  alone,  the  living  and  the  dead,  to  the  weal  or  woe  of 
their  new  home.  I  cannot  say  what  was  the  entire  emotion  of  that 
moment  and  that  scene,  but  the  tones  of  the  venerated  elder's 
voice,  as  they  gathered  round  him,  were  full  of  cheerful  trust;  and 
they  went  to  hearts  as  noble  as  his  own!  'This  spot',  he  might 
say,  'this  line  of  shore,  yea,  this  whole  land  grows  dearer,  daily, 
were  it  only  for  the  precious  dust  which  we  have  committed  to 
its  bosom.  I  would  sleep  here,  when  my  own  hour  comes,  rather 
than  elsewhere,  with  those  who  have  shared  with  us  in  our  ex- 
ceeding labors,  and  whose  burdens  are  now  unloosed  forever.  I 
would  be  near  them  in  the  last  day,  and  have  a  part  in  their  resur- 
rection. And  now,'  he  proceeded,  'let  us  go  from  the  side  of  the 
grave,  to  work  with  all  our  might  what  we  have  to  do.  It  is  in 
my  mind  that  our  night  of  sorrow  is  well-nigh  ended,  and  that 
the  joy  of  our  morning  is  at  hand.  The  breath  of  the  pleasant 
south-west  is  here,  and  the  singing  of  birds.  The  sore  sickness 
is  stayed,  somewhat  more  than  half  our  number  remain,  and  among 
them  some  of  our  best  and  wisest,  though  others  have  fallen  asleep. 
Matter  of  joy  and  thanksgiving  to  God  it  is,  that  among  you  all, 
the  living  and  the  dead,  I  know  not  one, — even  when  disease  had 
touched  him,  and  sharp  grief  had  made  his  heart  as  a  little  child's 
— who  desired,  yea,  who  could  have  been  entreated  to  go  back  to 
England  by  yonder  ship.  Plainly  it  is  his  will  that  we  stand  or 
fall  here.  If  he  prospers  us,  we  shall  found  a  church,  against  which 
the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail;  and  a  colony, — a  nation, — by 
which  all  the  nations  shall  be  healed,  and  shall  be  saved.  Millions 
shall  spring  from  our  loins,  and  trace  back,  with  lineal  love,  their 
blood  to  ours.  Centuries  hereafter,  in  great  cities,  the  capitals  of 
mighty  states,  and  from  the  tribes  of  a  common  and  happy  Israel, 
shall  come  together,  the  good,  the  distinguished,  the  wise,  to  re- 
member our  dark  day  of  small  things;  yea,  generations  shall  call 
us  blessed.' 

Without  a  sign,  calmly,  with  triumph,  they  turned  away  from 
the  grave.  They  sent  the  Mayflower  away,  and  went  back,  those 
stern,  strong  men,  to  their  imperial  labors." 

Could  anything  be  more  fitting  than  that  a  lineal 
descendant  of  the  great  elder,  himself  an  eminent  New 
England  divine,  should  have  been  invited  to  deliver 
the  principal  address  in  1921,  in  consecration  of  a 
monument  to  those  who  were  committed  to  their 
graves  by  his  ancestor  in  1621,  or  could  anything  be 
more  fortunate  than  that  he  has  undertaken  the  task 
with  the  fullest  realization  of  its  significance? 


TERCENTENARY  CELEBRATION  13 

And  as  we  consecrate  this  monument,  shall  we  not 
cry  out,  across  the  infinite  gulf  to  those  whose  graves 
it  marks: 

0  little  band  of  brave  and  steadfast  Christians, 
first  of  the  English  race  to  be  committed  to  New 
England  earth,  we,  your  descendants  and  successors, 
the  beneficiaries  of  those  blessings  which  have  sprung 
from  your  ashes  as  from  precious  seeds,  stand  here 
to-day,  with  inexpressible  gratitude,  reverence,  and  love 
for  your  memories,  which  we  pledge  ourselves  shall  be 
transmitted  from  generation  to  generation,  even  unto 
the  end  of  time!    [Applause.] 

Organ    Selection — Cantabile         .        .       Cesar  Franck 
Mr.  Albert  W.  Snow 

Chairman  Davis. — At  the  time  of  the  celebration 
on  the  21st  of  December  of  last  year,  under  the  aus- 
pices of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  and  the 
Tercentenary  Commission,  one  of  the  delightful  events 
of  that  day  was  an  original  poem  prepared  by  Dean 
LeBaron  Russell  Briggs.  Dean  Briggs  has  kindly  con- 
sented to  repeat  the  poem  for  us  today.  I  know  you 
will  be  especially  grateful  to  him,  as  I  am  for  his 
kindness  to  us  to-day.  I  have  therefore  great  pleasure 
in  presenting  to  you  Dean  Briggs,  a  descendant  of 
Governor  Bradford. 

1620—1920 

A   POEM 

By   LeBaron   Russell   Briggs 
Professor  in  Harvard   University 

Before  him  rolls  the  dark,  relentless  ocean; 

Behind  him  stretch  the  cold  and  barren  sands; 
Wrapt  in  the  mantle  of  his  deep  devotion, 

The  Pilgrim  kneels,  and  clasps  his  lifted  hands: 

"God  of  our  fathers,  who  has  safely  brought  us 
Through  seas  and  sorrows,  famine,  fire,  and  sword; 

Who,  in  Thy  mercies  manifold  hast  taught  us 
To  trust  in  Thee,  our  leader  and  our  Lord; 


14  ORDER    OF   EXERCISES 

"God,  who  has  sent  Thy  truth  to  shine  before  us, 
A  fiery  pillar,  beaconing  on  the  sea; 

God,  who  hast  spread  Thy  wings  of  mercy  o'er  us; 
God,  who  hast  set  our  children's  children  free, 

"Freedom  Thy  new-born  nation  here  shall  cherish; 

Grant  us  Thy  covenant,  unchanging,  sure: 
Earth  shall  decay;  the  firmament  shall  perish; 

Freedom  and  Truth,  immortal  shall  endure." 

Face  to  the  Indian  arrows, 

Face  to  the  Prussian  guns, 
From  then  till  now  the  Pilgrim's  vow 

Has  held  the  Pilgrim's  sons. 

He  braved  the  red  man's  ambush; 

He  loosed  the  black  man's  chain; 
His  spirit  broke  King  George's  yoke 

And  the  battleships  of  Spain. 

He  crossed  the  seething  ocean; 

He  dared  the  death-strewn  track; 
He  charged  in  the  hell  of  Saint  Mihiel 

And  hurled  the  tyrant  back. 

For  the  voice  of  the  lonely  Pilgrim 

Who  knelt  upon  the  strand 
A  people  hears  three  hundred  years 

In  the  conscience  of  the  land. 


Daughter  of  Truth  and  mother  of  Courage, 

Conscience,  all  hail! 
Heart  of  New  England,  strength  of  the  Pilgrim, 

Thou  shalt  prevail. 
Look  how  the  empires  rise  and  fall! 

Athens  robed  in  her  learning  and  beauty, 
Rome  in  her  royal  lust  of  power — 
Each  has  flourished  her  little  hour, 
Risen  and  fallen  and  ceased  to  be. 
What  of  her  by  the  western  sea, 

Born  and  bred  as  the  child  of  Duty, 
Sternest  of  them  all? 
She  it  is,  and  she  alone 
WTho  built  on  faith  as  her  corner  stone; 
Of  all  the  nations  none  but  she 
Knew  that  the  truth  shall  make  us  free. 


TERCENTENARY    CELEBRATION  15 

Daughter  of  Courage,  mother  of  Heroes, 

Freedom  divine, 
Light  of  New  England,  star  of  the  Pilgrim, 

Still  shalt  thou  shine. 


Yet  even  as  we  in  our  pride  rejoice, 
Hark  to  the  prophet's  warning  voice: 
"The  Pilgrim's  thrift  is  vanished, 

And  the  Pilgrim's  faith  is  dead, 
And  the  Pilgrim's  God  is  banished, 

And  Mammon  reigns  in  his  stead; 
And  work  is  damned  as  an  evil, 

And  men  and  women  cry, 
In  their  restless  haste,  'Let  us  spend  and  waste, 

And  live;  for  tomorrow  we  die.' 

"And  law  is  trampled  under; 

And  the  nations  stand  aghast, 
As  they  hear  the  distant  thunder 

Of  the  storm  that  marches  fast; 
And  we, — whose  ocean  borders 

Shut  off  the  sound  and  the  sight, — 
We  will  wait  for  marching  orders; 

The  world  has  seen  us  fight; 
We  have  earned  our  days  of  revel; 

'On  with  the  dance!  we  cry. 
'It  is  pain  to  think;  we  will  eat  and  drink, 

And  live — for  tomorrow  we  die. 

"  'We  have  laughed  in  the  eyes  of  danger; 

We  have  given  our  bravest  and  best; 
We  have  succored  the  starving  stranger; 

Others  shall  heed  the  rest.' 
And  the  revel  never  ceases; 

And  the  nations  hold  their  breath; 
And  our  laughter  peals,  and  the  mad  world  reels 

To  a  carnival  of  death. 

"Slaves  of  sloth  and  the  senses, 

Clippers  of  Freedom's  wings, 
Come  back  to  the  Pilgrim's  army 

And  fight  for  the  King  of  Kings; 
Come  back  to  the  Pilgrim's  conscience; 

Be  born  in  the  nation's  birth; 
And  strive  again  as  simple  men 

For  the  freedom  of  the  earth. 


16  ORDER    OF    EXERCISES 

"Freedom  a  free-born  nation  still  shall  cherish; 

Be  this  our  covenant,  unchanging,  sure: 
Earth  shall  decay;  the  firmament  shall  perish; 

Freedom  and  Truth  immortal  shall  endure." 


Land  of  our  fathers,  when  the  tempest  rages, 

When  the  wide  earth  is  racked  with  war  and  crime, 

Founded  forever  on  the  Rock  of  Ages, 
Beaten  in  vain  by  surging  seas  of  time, 

Even  as  the  shallop  on  the  breakers  riding, 
Even  as  the  Pilgrim  kneeling  on  the  shore, 

Firm  in  thy  faith  and  fortitude  abiding, 
Hold  thou  thy  children  free  for  ever  more. 


And  when  we  sail  as  Pilgrim's  sons  and  daughers 
The  spirit's  Mayflower  into  seas  unknown, 

Driving  across  the  waste  of  wintry  waters 
The  voyage  every  soul  shall  make  alone, 

The  Pilgrim's  faith,  the  Pilgrim's  courage  grant  us; 

Still  shines  the  truth  that  for  the  Pilgrim  shone. 
We  are  his  seed;  nor  life  nor  death  shall  daunt  us. 

The  port  is  Freedom!   Pilgrim  heart,  sail  on! 

[Applause.  1 

Address  by 

Rt.  Rev.  Benjamin  Brewster,  Bishop  of  Maine. 

I.  The  monument  we  dedicate  to-day  commemorates 
one  of  those  stories  of  sacrifice  which  mean  to  human 
society  not  loss  but  gain. 

As  we  honor  those  few  hundred  Greeks  under  Leon- 
idas,  giving  up  their  lives  in  the  Pass  at  Thermopylae, 
if  they  might  at  least  delay  the  advance  of  the  mighty 
Persian  host;  as  we  glory  in  those  Belgians  of  own  our 
day  who  counted  not  their  lives  dear,  in  blocking  the 
way  of  the  overpowering  violators  of  their  little  nation's 
neutrality; — So  we  do  well  to  place  this  memorial  here, 
for  those  "Mayflower"  Pilgrims  who,  in  that  first  win- 
ter faced  their  "rendezvous  with  death." 


TERCENTENARY    CELEBRATION  17 

Though  we  may  know  well  the  facts,  yet  the  vivid 
story  of  William  Bradford  so  graphically  pictures  the 
situation,  that  we  may  listen  to  his  record  once  more: 

"That  which  was  most  sadd  and  lamentable  was  that  in  two 
or  three  months'  time  halfe  of  their  company  dyed,  espetialy  in 
January,  and  February,  being  the  depth  of  winter,  and  wanting 
houses  and  other  comforts;  being  infected  with  the  scurvie  and 
other  diseases,  when  this  long  voyage  and  their  inacomodate  con- 
dition had  brought  upon  them;  so  as  ther  dyed  sometimes  two 
three  of  a  day,  in  the  foresaid  time;  that  of  one  hundred  and  odd 
persons,  scarce  fifty  remained.  And  of  these  in  the  time  of  most 
distress,  ther  was  but  six  or  seven  sound  persons,  who  to  their 
great  commendations,  be  it  spoken,  spared  no  pains,  night  nor  day, 
but  with  abundance  of  toyle  and  hazard  of  their  owne  health, 
fetched  them  woode,  made  them  fires,  drest  them  meat,  made 
their  beads,  washed  their  lothsome  cloaths,  cloathed  and  uncloathed 
them."1 

When  Bradford  wrote  this,  there  was  no  reason  to 
draw  a  veil  over  the  fact  that  half  of  the  passengers 
who  had  landed  from  the  "Mayflower"  laid  down  their 
lives  so  soon  as  martyrs  in  this  high  adventure.  But 
in  the  earliest  Journal,  written  in  1621,  and  published 
in  England  the  following  year  (usually  called  "Mourt's 
Relations")  a  stern  reticence  is  maintained,  probably 
to  avoid  discouragement  among  the  supporters  of  the 
enterprise  in  the  homeland.2  Yet  even  here  a  sugges- 
tion of  the  sore  trials  is  given  (though  with  no  hint 
of  unmanly  complaining)  when,  in  the  entry  of  this 
Journal  for  December  28th,  mention  is  made  of  the 
limited  number  of  houses  which  the  settlers  undertook 
to  build,  and  the  contracted  area  of  the  allotments: 

"We  thought  this  preparation  was  large  enough  at  the  first, 
for  houses  and  gardens,  to  impale  them  round,  considering  the 
weakness  of  our  people,  many  of  them  growing  ill  with  colds,  for 
our  former  Discoveries  in  the  frost  and  storms,  and  the  wading 
at  Cape  Cod,  had  brought  much  weakness  amongst  us,  which 
increased  so  every  day  more  and  more,  and  after  was  the  cause 
of  many  of  their  deaths."3 


1-Wm.  Bradford:   "History  of  Plymouth  Plantation."  p.  108. 

2See  the  remarks  of  Geo.  B.  Cheever,  D.  D.  in  Chapter  XV 
of  his  "Historical  and  Local  Illustrations,"  published  in  connection 
with  the  reprinting  of  "The  Journal  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth." 
(2d  Ed.  p.  260.) 

3Journal  (Cheever's  reprint.)  p.  50. 


18  ORDER    OF    EXERCISES 

One  of  the  last  of  the  victims  of  this  devastating 
sickness  was  their  first  Governor,  John  Carver.  Of  his 
burial  alone  is  particular  mention  made  in  the  early 
chronicle,  with  the  note  that  "Some  vollies  of  shotte" 
were  fired  "by  all  that  bore  arms."  But  among  the 
families  of  the  most  conspicuous  leaders  a  heavy  toll 
was  taken.  Even  before  the  landing  at  Plymouth, 
while  William  Bradford  was  away  exploring  with  a 
squad  of  picked  men,  his  wife  was  drowned.  And  in 
the  great  sickness,  the  register  kept  by  this  careful 
chronicler  early  notes  the  deaths  of  Edward  Winslow's 
wife,  and  of  Isaac  Allerton's  wife.  The  entry  in  this 
register  for  January  29th,  1621,— "Rose,  the  wife  of 
Captain  Standish" — suggests  to  the  imagination  a  part- 
ing, touched  with  memories  of  youthful  love  and 
pledged  loyalty,  such  as  make  brave  men  still  more 
brave. 

We  judge  of  the  quality  of  these  men  and  women 
by  the  dauntless  demeanour  of  the  survivors.  What 
farewell  words  of  comfort  were  breathed  by  these  pil- 
grims to  the  life  beyond  we  know  not.  For  the  records 
of  that  time  of  trial  find  no  place  for  such  things. 
But,  that  they  departed  not  as  defeated  souls,  but 
rather,  "greeting  the  unseen  with  a  cheer,"  we  may 
believe  not  only  from  the  general  consideration  of  their 
faith,  but  from  the  brave  spirit  of  those  they  left 
behind. 

Undemonstrative  indeed  was  this  steady  courage, 
affording  room  for  precaution  against  unknown  dan- 
gers, evinced  in  the  tradition  that  lived  among  their 
descendants,  that  the  graves  on  Cole's  hill,  after  the 
great  mortality  in  the  first  stage  of  the  settlement, 
were  levelled  and  sown  over  by  the  settlers  to  conceal 
the  extent  of  their  loss  from  the  natives,  "lest  the 
Indians,  counting  the  number  of  the  dead,  should  know 
the  weakness  of  the  living."1 

'Thatcher:  "History  of  Plymouth,"  p.  28. 
Cheever,  op.  cit.,  p.  266. 


TERCENTENARY  CELEBRATION  19 

But  their  determination  held  them  on  this  forbidding 
shore,  of  which  Captain  John  Smith  had  declared  that 
he  was  not  so  simple  as  to  suppose  that  any  motive 
other  than  riches  would  "ever  erect  there  a  common- 
wealth or  draw  company  from  their  ease  and  humors 
at  home  to  stay  in  New  England."2 

The  early  spring  of  1621,  when  the  fury  of  the 
epidemic  was  not  yet  spent,  saw  "The  Mayflower" 
with  its  crew  sail  back  to  old  England.  But  not  one 
of  the  Pilgrims  turned  back.  Nay  even,  as  a  recent 
writer  has  observed,  "In  March,  in  spite  of  the  terrors 
which  encompassed  them,  in  spite  of  the  graves  of  the 
dead  which  far  outnumbered  the  homes  of  the  living, 
Winslow  could  yet  note  that  'the  birds  sang  in  the 
woods  most  pleasantly.'  "3 

Truly  these  forefathers  of  ours  "lived  dangerously," 
in  a  very  real  and  definite  sense,  quite  beyond  the 
spiritual  horizon  of  the  modern  philosopher  who  coined 
the  phrase! 

In  concrete  experience,  they  could  live  up  to  that 
proud  claim  in  the  letter  from  Holland,  three  years 
before,  written  to  London  by  two  of  their  leaders:  "It 
is  not  with  us  as  with  other  men,  whom  small  things 
can  discourage,  or  small  discontentments  cause  to  wish 
themselves  home  again."4 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  limitations  of  their 
theology,  in  their  attitude  towards  the  hard  things  that 
a  soldier  of  Christ  must  learn  to  face  with  bravery, 
they  have  bequeathed  to  us  a  rich  heritage,  whereof 
we  should  strive  to  be  worthy. 

II.  This  occasion,  however,  invites  a  consideration 
of  their  adventure  in  its  relation  to  the  broad  currents 
of  thought  which  affect  powerfully  the  course  of  history. 

2Fiske,  "Beginnings  of  New  Eng.,"  p.  79. 

3J.  Truslow  Adams,  in  "The  founding  of  New  England,"  p.  100. 
^Letter  from  John  Robinson  and  William  Brewster,  in  Brad- 
ford's History,  p.  55. 


20  ORDER    OF    EXERCISES 

That  group  of  "Mayflower"  Pilgrims  belonged  to 
the  general  movement  which  we  call  Puritanism,  yet 
with  a  difference.  The  great  revolution,  known  as  the 
Protestant  Reformation,  was  determined  by  intellec- 
tual, political  and  economic  conditions,  as  well  as  by 
the  revolt  of  great  religious  leaders  against  the  ecclesi- 
astical institutions  of  the  earlier  age.  Such  things  as 
the  revival  of  classical  learning,  the  discovery  of  new 
lands,  and  the  rise  of  nationalism  contributed  their 
influence  in  varying  measure,  in  different  countries. 

In  England,  the  new  national  consciousness  strongly 
reacted  upon  the  spirit  of  individualism  which  stands 
out  as  the  distinctive  feature  of  the  Reformation  era 
A  congenial  soil,  indeed,  had  been  prepared  there  for 
the  growth  of  individualism  by  the  hard-won  achieve- 
ments of  civil  liberty  and  the  experience  of  local  self- 
government.  A  ready  response  was  given,  among  our 
sturdy  forefathers  in  the  sea-girt  isle,  to  the  doctrines 
of  Luther  and  Calvin  stressing  the  responsibility  of  the 
individual  soul,  and  English  Puritanism,  in  one  aspect 
of  it,  stands  as  the  embodiment  of  this  principle  of 
individualism. 

But  the  newly  awakened  nationalism  coinciding 
with  the  reigns  of  the  Tudors,  and  fostered  by  the 
dominating  personalities  of  that  dynasty,  made  for  the 
entrenchment  of  the  Church  as  an  institution,  at  once 
protected  and  exploited  by  the  royal  authority.  We  see 
this  in  the  official  statement  of  William  Cecil,  the  first 
Lord  Burghley,  on  the  expelling  of  certain  Puritan 
clergy  from  their  livings: 

"For  the  religion  which  they  profess,  I  reverence  them  and 
their  calling;  but  for  their  unconformity,  I  acknowledge  myself 
no  way  warranted  to  deal  for  them,  because  the  course  they  take 
is  no  way  safe  in  such  a  monarchy  as  this;  where  Mis  Majesty 
aimeth  at  no  other  end  than  where  there  is  but  one  true  faith  and 
doctrine  preached,  there  to  eatablish  one  form,  so  as  a  perpetual 
peace  may  be  settled  in  the  Church  of  God."1 

*S.  R.  Gardiner,  "History  of  England,"  I,  p.  200. 


TERCENTENARY  CELEBRATION  21 

The  historian,  Gardiner's,  comment  on  the  above 
is  suggestive: 

"The  view  thus  taken  was  that  of  the  man  of  business  in  all 
ages  and  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  To  such  natures  the  strength 
which  freedom  gives  is  entirely  inconceivable."2 

The  problem  for  those  whose  hearts  and  consciences 
were  especially  responsive  to  the  more  individualistic 
manifestations  of  Protestantism  was,  how  to  be  loyal 
as  Englishmen  to  the  nation  of  which  they  were  justly 
proud,  and  yet  not  to  surrender  that  "patriotism  of 
the  soul"  (to  borrow  the  phrase  of  James  Russell 
Lowell  in  connection  with  a  situation  not  dis- 
similar) by  which  they  felt  themselves  "citizens  of  an 
invisible  and  holier  fatherland"  with  a  supreme  "duty 
and  privilege  as  liegemen  of  truth."3  This,  I  think,  is 
the  key  to  the  religious  controversies  in  England,  es- 
pecially throughout  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth  and  of 
James  First.  The  difficulty  was  on  the  institutional  side, 
as  the  statement  just  quoted  from  Lord  Burghley  shows. 
Law  and  Order  had  to  be  upheld.  Men  had  yet  to 
learn  that  diverse  systems  of  ecclesiastical  government, 
and  varying  forms  of  public  worship  could  be  tolerated 
in  an  orderly  state.  That  way,  they  thought  then,  lay 
anarchy.  The  great  mass  of  the  Puritanical  party  were 
as  firm  supporters  of  the  Church  establishment  as  the 
most  ardent  lovers  of  the  forms  and  settled  institu- 
tions that  emphasized  the  dignity  and  the  reverence 
of  outward  worship.  As  Dr  Leonard  Bacon  has  written: 

"The  Puritan  was  a  Nationalist,  believing  that  a 
Christian  nation  is  a  Christian  Church." 

It  was  seen  afterwards,  in  the  parliamentary  tri- 
umph in  the  Civil  Wars,  what  rigorous  use  the  Puritans 
could  make  of  the  power  of  repression  when  it  was  in 
their  hands. 

'Ibid,  p.  201. 

3I  borrow  the  phrases  of  James  Russell  Lowell  in  reference  to 
a  situation  not  dissimilar,  confronting  the  New  England  descen- 
dants of  these  Puritans  ("Bigelow  Papers"). 


22  ORDER    OF    EXERCISES 

Men  had  strong  convictions  in  those  days.  And, 
while  one  may  lament  the  tragedy  which  arrayed  the 
quest  for  personal  rights  so  often  against  much  that 
was  hallowed  and  beautiful  and  true,  and  while  we 
rightly  blame  the  principle  of  Church  establishment  as 
contributing  to  this  unhappy  strife,  it  is  hardly  pro- 
fitable to  condemn  the  intolerance  of  that  time.  It  is 
better  to  inquire  whether  intolerance  in  other  spheres 
has  taken  the  place  today  of  intolerance  in  religion. 
And  it  is  but  fair  to  take  account  of  that  devotion  to 
principle,  not  confined  to  one  party  in  the  contest, 
which  in  the  end  worked  out  the  measure  of  liberty 
and  toleration  which  we  now  enjoy. 

III.  But  it  is  time  to  consider  particularly  that 
special  offshoot  of  the  great  Puritan  movement  to 
which  the  travellers  in  "The  Mayflower"  belonged, — 
that  rather  obscure  eddy,  as  it  were,  in  the  main 
current  of  the  movement,  which  ultimately  influenced 
so  profoundly  the  stream  of  progress.  It  is  necessary 
to  make  plain  distinctions  here. 

While  the  great  body  of  the  Puritan  party  believed 
in  the  establishment  of  Religion  by  the  authority  of 
the  State,  there  were  a  few  early  witnesses  for  a 
different  conception,  some  of  whom  sealed  their  devo- 
tion to  the  doctrine  of  Separatism  or  Independance  on 
the  gallows.  Separatist  congregations  arose  from  time 
to  time,  often  going  to  anarchical  extremes, — as  always 
will  happen  under  a  policy  of  indiscriminate  repression.1 

The  accession  of  James  I  in  1603  and  his  disappoint- 
ing attitude  provoked  the  rising  spirit  of  liberty  among 
men  of  more  sober  mind  and  more  stable  character. 
His  familiarity  with  the  Presbyterian  polity  in  Scotland, 
it  was  hoped  by  the  Puritans,  would  make  him  ready 
to  receive  their  complaints  against  the  bishops.  But 
that  familiarity  seemed  to  work  the  other  way,  and 
cause   him   to   welcome   and   cultivate  episcopal   sub- 

^ee  J.  Truslow  Adams,  "Founding  of  New  England"  pp. 67-68. 


TERCENTENARY   CELEBRATION  23 

serviency.  Though  at  first  giving  hopes  of  some  meas- 
ure of  tolerance,  he  snubbed  the  Puritan  divines  with 
the  famous  dictum  (so  fraught  with  evil  for  the  Church 
as  well  as  the  State):  "No  bishop  no  king;"2  and 
dismissed  them  with  the  truculent  threat,  "I  will  make 
them  conform  or  I  will  harry  them  out  of  the  land." 

The  rise  of  the  Separatist  congregation  of  Scrooby, 
which  was  the  nucleus  of  the  ultimate  "Mayflower" 
company,  dates  from  1606,  hardly  two  years  after  the 
Hampton  Court  Conference,  at  which  the  impolitic 
king  so  defiantly  proclaimed  his  absolutist  theory  of 
rule,  and  cemented  the  ill-omened  alliance  between 
autocracy  in  the  state  and  episcopacy  in  the  Church. 
It  is  reasonable  to  assume  a  connection  of  cause  and 
effect  here. 

William  Brewster,  the  tenant  of  Scrooby  Manor, 
doubtless  had  imbibed  Puritan  principles  through  his 
connection  with  the  Elizabethan  statesman,  William 
Davison, — though  even  so,  his  early  sojourn  in  the 
Netherlands  as  a  member  of  Davison's  embassy  had 
probably  tempered  the  hardness  of  Puritan  doctrine. 
But,  holding  as  he  did  since  1587  the  important  ap- 
pointment of  "Post,"  or  master  of  the  court  mails  and 
government  messages,1  he  would  have  been  constantly 
under  observation,  and  any  unlawful  religious  meetings 
in  his  house  would  have  been  known.  It  is  only  after 
the  Hampton  Court  Conference  that  we  begin  to  hear 
of  these  meetings  at  Scrooby  Manor,  and  in  1607, 
Brewster  ceased  to  hold  office. 

For  upwards  of  two  years,  however,  the  illegal 
religious  assemblages  gathered  for  their  simple  worship 
on  Sunday  afternoons  at  Scrooby  Manor,  imbibing  the 
teaching  and  the  spirit  of  a  remarkable  man,  Rev. 
John  Robinson. 

2Frere,  "Hist  of  Eng.  Church  in  Reigns  of  Elizabeth  and 
James  I,"  p.  297. 

1Morton  Dexter,  "The  England  and  Holland  of  the  Pilgrims," 
pp.  237;  320. 


24  ORDER    OF    EXERCISES 

IV.  It  was  to  Robinson,  in  the  providence  of  God, 
that  this  Scrooby  group  owed  much  of  its  distinctive 
quality.  His  was  no  stationary  mind.  At  this  period, 
no  doubt,  the  negative  principle  of  independence  was 
emphasized  by  him  and  his  flock.  They  followed  the 
logic  of  their  individualistic  creed  to  its  conclusion.  To 
their  thinking,  the  Mother  Church  had  become  cor- 
rupted by  worldly  influences  and  human  inventions. 
In  this  respect  they  held  common  ground  with  the 
other  stout  Calvinists  known  as  Puritans.  But  in  their 
endeavors  to  realize  their  ideal  of  a  Church  they  were 
more  single-minded  than  the  bulk  of  the  Puritan  party. 
Convinced  by  hard  experience  that  the  ruling  powers 
of  the  Church  were  bound  to  repress  that  "liberty  of 
prophesying"  to  which  they  believed  the  Spirit  of  God 
was  leading  them,  they  resolutely — even  if,  as  we  may 
believe,  reluctantly — sacrificed  the  lesser  loyalty  to 
authority  to  the  higher  loyalty  to  the  Spirit,  and 
separated  from  that  Church,  which  they  had  come  to 
think  was  hopelessly  fettered  by  its  connection  with 
the  State.  This  step  of  Separatism  was  repugnant,  as 
has  been  said,  to  the  Puritan  party  no  less  than  to 
Anglicans  in  full  sympathy  with  the  ritual  of  the 
Prayer  Book  and  the  rule  of  Bishops.  Compelled  to 
choose  between  imprisonment  and  exile,  they  became 
Pilgrims,  and  the  land  of  William  the  Silent  gave  them 
sanctuary. 

Not  the  first  group  of  Separatists  to  take  refuge  in 
Holland  were  these  Pilgrims  from  Scrooby.  More  than 
one  congregation  had  already  settled  in  Amsterdam, 
the  port  of  their  initial  sojourn.  And  here  soon  comes 
to  light  the  quality  which  distinguished  the  follwers 
of  John  Robinson  from  the  other  Separatists.  For  in 
Amsterdam  there  had  already  developed  those  objec- 
tionable tendencies  which  are  the  dangers  of  such  a 
position  —  a  narrow  censoriousness,  uncharitableness, 
petty  divisions,  what  we  today  would  call  "crankiness" 
— in  short  the  perils  of  individualism  without  the  per- 


TERCENTENARY    CELEBRATION  25 

spective  which  the  sense  of  wide  corporate  fellowship 
gives.  This  atmosphere  of  fractional  strife  was  uncon- 
genial to  Robinson  and  his  flock,  and  therefore,  after 
due  negotiation  with  the  truly  liberal-minded  burghers 
of  Leyden,1  that  hospitable  city  became  their  abiding 
place  for  eleven  years;  and  the  university  there,  already 
famous  though  still  young,  welcomed  Robinson,  a 
Cambridge  graduate,  to  its  membership.2 

Thrice  a  week,  as  Bradford  tells  us,  this  man  of 
light  and  leading  taught  these  simple  but  thoughtful 
English  exiles  in  the  old  Dutch  town.  We  have  not 
his  sermons.  But  from  other  writings  of  his  we  may 
infer  the  sort  of  teaching  on  which  the  future 
"Mayflower"  voyagers  were  nourished.  It  was  an  era 
of  religious  controversy,  and  Robinson  himself  had 
positive  convictions.  But  here  is  a  characteristic  pas- 
sage from  one  of  his  essays: 

"Disputations  in  religion  are  sometimes  necessary,  but  always 
dangerous;  drawing  the  best  spirits  into  the  head  from  the  heart, 
and  leaving  it  either  empty  of  all,  or  too  full  of  fleshly  zeal  and 
passion  if  extraordinary  care  be  not  taken  still  to  supply  and  fill 
it  anew  with  pious  affections  towards  God  and  loving  towards 
men."3 

Again,  we  find  him  arguing  for  civil  tolerance  of 
alleged  religious  errors:  "considering  that  neither  God 
is  pleased  with  unwilling  worshippers,  nor  Christian 
Societies  bettered,  nor  the  persons  themselves  either 
.  and  being  at  first  constrained  to  practice 
against  conscience   (many)   lose   all   conscience   after- 


xSee  "Leyden  Documents  Relating  to  the  Pilgrim  Fathers," 
pub.  by  Netherlands-American  Institute,  1920,  with  preface  by 
Dr.  J.  R.  Harris,  and  Dr.  I.  J.  Plooij. 

2See  art.  by  F.  J.  Powicke,  "John  Robinson  and  Pilgrim 
Movement,"  in  Harv.  Theol.  Rev.,  July,  1920,  pp.  269-280,  a 
valuable  correction  to  R.  G.  Usher. 

3F.  J.  Powicke,  "J.  Robinson  &  Beginnings  of  the  Pilgrim 
Movement."  in  Harv.  Theol.  Rev.  for  July,  1920,  p.  270. 


26  ORDER    OF    EXERCISES 

wards.    Bags  and  vessels  overstrained  break,  and  will 
never  after  hold  anything."1 

Now  it  is  the  simple  truth,  that  in  the  temper  of 
the  Plymouth  Colony — by  contrast  particularly  with 
the  strong  neighboring  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay — 
we  see  plainly  the  fruit  of  this  "Christian  Wisdom"  of 
their  pastor  whom  they  had  left  behind.  This  distinc- 
tion has  not  always  been  recognized,  and  historical 
justice  demands  that  we  recognize  it.  And,  though 
certain  investigators  have  questioned  the  genuineness 
of  the  famous  "Farewell  Address"  which  Edward 
Winslow  records,  comparison  with  John  Robinson's 
unquestioned  writings,  that  reveal  the  forward  move- 
ment of  his  mind,  ever  aspiring  to  regions  of  freedom 
and  light,  confirms  belief  in  Winslow's  fidelity  to  the 
spirit  of  his  parting  injunctions.  "He  charged  us" — 
so  runs  the  summary  of  the  noble  address — "before 
God  and  his  blessed  angels,  to  follow  him  no  further 
than  he  followed  Christ;  and  if  God  should  reveal 
anything  to  us  by  any  other  Instrument  of  his,  to  be 
as  ready  to  receive  it,  as  ever  we  were  to  receive  any 
truth  by  his  Ministry.  For  he  was  very  confident  the 
Lord  had  more  truth  and  light  yet  to  break  forth  out 
of  his  Holy  Word."2 

The  Pilgrims,  then,  were  dedicated  by  their  wise 
and  godly  teacher  to  the  principle  of  progress  in 
thought,  held  true  by  loyalty  to  Christ.  And  we  honor 
them  for  their  general  fidelity  to  that  principle.  They 
had  moved,  in  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  their  open- 
minded  pastor,  from  a  position  of  negative  revolt,  to 
a  positive  stage,  not  of  course  tolerant  of  all  religious 
vagaries,  but  giving  room  for  a  generous  measure  of 
inclusiveness.1 


iPowicke,  op.  cit.  "Harv.  Theol.  Rev.,"  p.  286. 

2Wm.  W.  Fenn,  "John  Robinson's  Farewell  Address,"  in  Harv. 
Theol.  Rev.,  July,  1920.  p.  236. 

JCf.  Powicke,  op.  cit.  "Harv.  Theol.  Rev.,"  p.  280-1.  Note 
also,  an  article  in  same  no.  of  the  "Review"  by  W.  W.  Fenn,  on 


TERCENTENARY  CELEBRATION  27 

V.  Moreover,  no  less  noteworthy  than  this  quality 
of  forward-looking  idealism,  was  the  political  sagacity 
of  the  Plymouth  leaders.  Witness  the  well-known 
"Compact"  in  the  cabin  of  "The  Mayflower,"  when 
confronted  with  the  impending  dangers  of  lawlessness 
on  the  part  of  certain  fellow-adventurers  who  had 
joined  them  in  England  before  their  embarkation  on 
their  west-bound  journey.2 

Surely  no  unpractical,  wild-eyed  fanatics  were  these 
Pilgrim  Fathers.  Deeper  than  their  Puritan  eccentricity 
was  their  English  sanity.  They  came  of  a  stock  imbued 
with  principles  of  law-abidingness,  trained  for  social 
action.  Though  first  of  all  citizens  of  a  heavenly  coun- 
try, they  never  forgot  that  they  were  Englishmen;  and 
to  this  was  due  their  refusal  of  their  Dutch  hosts' 
invitation  to  plant  a  colony  in  the  island  of  Zealand, 
or  even  to  join  with  the  settlers  at  New  Amsterdam. 
They  would  remain  English.  And  so  New  England  was 
born  of  this  marriage  of  spiritual  devotion  with  racial 
loyalty. 

The  President  of  the  United  States,  in  the  striking 
address  given  in  this  place  this  summer,  sugges- 
tively pointed  out  how  the  ideals  of  English  self 
government,  which  found  expression  in  this  Plymouth 
Settlement,  are  "the  basis  of  social  conduct,  of  com- 
munity relations,  throughout  the  world."  Indeed  we 
touch  but  one  element  in  the  character  and  power  of 
these  Pilgrim  Fathers,  when  we  speak,  of  their  indivi- 
dualism. That  was  the  more  superficial  element,  forced 
into  temporary  prominence  by  the  political  and  religious 
ferment  of  their  age.  More  fundemental  was  their 
innate  social  consciousness.  And  here,  once  more,  John 
Robinson's  wise  interpretation  of  life  is  manifest,  in  a 
letter  to  the  voyagers  which  Bradford  has  preserved: 

"John  Robinson's  Farewell  Address,"  wherein  Prof.  Fenn  as- 
cribes great  influence  in  developing  the  Catholic  spirit  of  the 
Pilgrims  to  Wm.  Brewster,  p,  250-1. 

Bradford  "Hist,  of  Plymouth,"  p.  106. 


28  ORDER    OF    EXERCISES 

"A  fourth  thing  there  is  carefully  to  be  provided  for,  to  witte, 
that  with  your  commone  employments  you  joyne  commone  affec- 
tions truly  bent  upon  the  generall  good,  avoyding  as  a  deadly 
plague  of  your  both  commone  and  spetiall  comfort  all  retirednes 
of  mind  for  proper  advantage,  and  all  singularly  affected  any 
manner  of  way;  let  every  man  represse  in  him  selfe  and  the  whol 
body  in  each  person,  as  so  many  rebels  against  the  commone 
good,  all  private  respects  of  mens  selves,  not  sorting  with  the 
generall  convenience."1 

To  such  principles,  applicable  alike  in  religion  and 
in  the  body  politic, — yes,  and  in  the  relations  of  nations 
to  one  another, — our  Pilgrim  fathers  gave  their  ad- 
herence. In  such  a  spirit,  rising  far  above  a  merely 
negative  conception  of  liberty,  those  whom  we  com- 
memorate today,  yeilded  up  their  lives  on  this  shore. 
To  that  spirit  of  fine  idealism,  looking  beyond  self- 
centered  satisfaction,  and  tempered  too  with  sane  prac- 
ticality, may  we  be  faithful,  as  we  strive  towards  the 
consummation  (devoutly  to  be  wished)  of  genuine 
freedom,  and  peace  among  men! 

For,  though  the  16th  century  emphasis  upon  indi- 
vidualism was  no  doubt  a  necessary  phase  in  the 
evolution  of  society,  and  though  we  derive  from  it 
valuable  elements,  not  lightly  to  be  abandoned, 
individualism  is  by  no  means  the  last  word  in  human 
progress. 

It  is  the  value  of  interdependence,  not  mere  inde- 
pendence, that  our  age  is  bringing  home  to  us, — 
the  truth  that  we  are  members  one  of  another — the 
call  to  fellowship,  and  the  sharing  in  a  common 
life.  In  this  our  day,  let  us  heed  the  divine  voice,  as 
our  forefathers  listened,  and,  at  cost  of  exile,  suffering 
and  sacrifice  of  life  itself  faithfully,  humbly,  yet  daunt- 
lessly  obeyed. 

Organ  Selection — Andante  Religioso  Horatio  W.  Parker 
Mr.  Albert  W.  Snow 

Chairman  Davis.  I  will  now  ask  our  new  Elder 
General  to  pronounce  the  benediction. 

'Bradford,  "Hist,  of  Plymouth  Plantation"pp.   85-86. 


TERCENTENARY  CELEBRATION  29 

Rev.  Harry  St.  Clair  Hathaway,  D.  D. 

Elder  General-Elect 

While  we  ask  God's  divine  blessing  upon  our  memo- 
rial and  upon  this  gathering,  let  us  be  mindful  of  those 
whom  we  memorialize. 

Almighty  and  everliving  God,  we  yield  unto  Thee 
most  high  praise  and  hearty  thanks,  for  the  wonderful 
grace  and  virtue  declared  in  all  thy  saints,  who  have 
been  the  choice  vessels  of  thy  grace,  and  the  lights  of 
the  world  in  their  several  generations;  most  humbly 
beseeching  thee  to  give  us  grace  so  to  follow  the  ex- 
ample of  their  stedfastness  in  thy  faith,  and  obedience 
to  thy  holy  commandments,  that  at  the  day  of  the 
general  Resurrection,  we,  with  all  those  who  are  of  the 
mystical  body  of  thy  Son,  may  be  set  on  his  right 
hand,  and  hear  that  his  most  joyful  voice:  Come,  ye 
blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared 
for  you  from  the  foundation  of  the  world. 

Grant  this,  0  Father,  for  Jesus  Christ's  sake,  our 
only  Mediator  and  Advocate.    Amen. 

Unto  God's  gracious  Mercy  we  commit  ourselves. 
May  the  Lord  bless  us  and  keep  us.  May  the  Lord 
make  his  face  to  shine  upon  us,  and  be  gracious  to  us. 
May  the  Lord  lift  up  his  countenance  upon  us,  and 
give  us  peace,  both  now  and  forevermore,  Amen. 

Following  the  exercises  at  the  First  Church,  the 
delegates  and  friends  in  attendance  were  marshaled 
under  Acting  General  Murray  and  his  aides,  and 
marched  to  the  Permanent  Memorial  on  Cole's  Hill, 
where  the  proceedings  were  resumed,  as  follows: 

Chairman  Howland  Davis:  Ladies  and  gentle- 
men, and  friends,  it  is  now  my  duty  as  Chairman  of 
the  Committee  entrusted  with  the  work  already  ac- 
complished here,  to  announce  that  we  have  completed 
our  labors  and  having  so  completed  our  labors,  it  is 


30  ORDER    OF    EXERCISES 

our  duty  and  our  pleasure  to  hand  over  to  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  Society,  Deputy  Governor  and  Acting 
Governor  General  French,  the  memorial  which  has 
been  prepared  and  carried  out  by  this  Society.  Mr. 
French,  we  turn  over  the  monument  to  you. 

Acting  Governor  General  French 

Mr.  President  [addressing  President  Arthur  Lord, 
of  the  Pilgrim  Society],  in  the  name  and  behalf  of  the 
General  Society  of  Mayflower  Descendants,  and  in 
response  to  the  generous  and  gracious  offer  of  the 
Pilgrim  Society,  I  now  confide  to  that  kindred  organi- 
zation, through  you  as  its  head,  the  pious  and  perpetual 
care  of  this  monument,  erected  by  the  General  Society 
to  commemorate  those  of  the  Mayflower  passengers 
who  died  earliest  in  Plymouth. 

Hon.  Arthur  Lord,  President  of  the  Pilgrim  Society. 

Mr.  Governor  General,  in  this  grateful  task  of 
commemoration,  the  Commonwealth  has  joined  with 
your  Society,  has  turned  aside  the  highway  which  for 
so  many  years  passed  over  the  line  of  graves,  has 
enclosed  and  protected  the  original  burial  place  of  those 
of  the  Pilgrim  company  who  died  the  first  winter,  and 
now  all  that  is  mortal  which  remains  of  those  who 
were  buried  here  has  been  placed  beneath  this  stone, 
never  again  to  be  disturbed. 

In  behalf  of  the  Pilgrim  Society  and  in  compliance 
with  your  request,  I  accept  the  important  trust  and 
high  responsibility  which  you  have  imposed.  There  is 
no  spot,  Sir,  where  the  associations  are  more  tender 
and  inspiring  and  persuasive  than  this  on  which  we 
stand  today.  Fitly  there  crowns  it  this  beautiful  sar- 
cophagus, a  memorial  at  once  simple  and  appro- 
priate, reverential  and  dignified,  and  here,  Sir,  may  it 
stand  forever. 


TERCENTENARY    CELEBRATION  31 

"So  let  it  live  unfading, 

The  memory  of  the  dead, 
Long  as  the  pale  anemone 

Springs  where  their  tears  were  shed, 
Or  raining  in  the  summer's  wind, 

In  flakes  of  burning  red, 
The  wild  rose  sprinkles  with  its  leaves 

The  turf  where  once  they  bled!" 

Chairman  Davis:  This  wreath  has  been  placed  on 
the  monument  by  the  General  Society.  An  opportunity 
will  now  be  given  by  the  Captain  General  for  the 
delegates  and  members  to  step  up  and  deposit  their 
individual  flower  on  the  monument  as  we  resume  the 
march. 

As  the  delegates  and  members  marched  past,  each 
deposited  a  flower  on  the  Memorial,  after  which  the 
procession  moved  to  the  Plymouth  Tavern,  where  a 
lunch  was  served. 

COMMITTEE    ON    THE   TERCENTENARY 
CELEBRATION 
AND    PERMANENT    MEMORIAL 

Former  Governor  General  Howland  Davis,  New  York, 
Chairman 

Deputy    Governor  General   Asa   P.    French,    Massa- 
chusetts 

Secretary  General  Addison  P.  Munroe,  Rhode  Island 

Former  Governor  General  Thomas  S.  Hopkins,  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia 

Deputy    Governor    General    Arthur     H.    Bennett, 
Kansas 


